Card puzzle

ABSTRACT

A group of cards each having a through opening and a characteristic marking proximate to the through opening, adapted for arrangement in stacked relation to locate the markings of different cards in complementary relation with each other.

United States Patent Weisbecker Feb. 29, 1972 [54] CARD PUZZLE [72] Inventor: Joseph A. Welshecker, 1220 Wayne Avenue, Erlton, Cherry Hill, NJ. 08034 [22] Filed: Nov. 12, 1969 [21] Appl. No.: 875,801

Morgan et a1 ..273/l52.1 X lrwin Watkin ..273/l57 A UX Primary Examiner-Anton O. Oechsle Attorney-Robert K. Youtie [57] ABSTRACT A group of cards each having a through opening and a characteristic marking proximate to the through opening, adapted for arrangement in stacked relation to locate the markings of different cards in complementary relation with each other.

[56] Reterences Cited 4 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTS a 2,91 1,229; 1 1 /1959 Ire in "273/1221 "mull /8a.

CARD PUZZLE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION While there have, in the past, been proposed many puzzles employing cards, prior puzzles have, in general, been unduly complexwith regard to the degree of challenge presented, have been relatively expensive to manufacture, and have lacked appeal to widely different age groups.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an important object of the present invention-to provide a card puzzle of the type described, which overcomes theabove-mentioned difficulties and disadvantages of prior art puzzles, presents an extremely high degree of challenge without undue complexity, appeals to an extremely broad age group without regard to education and skill, is extremely inexpensive to manufacture, being highly attractive in'appearance, serving to arrest the attention of users for long sustained periods of time, and which is extremely simple in construction for convenience in portability, permitting of enjoyable play at home, away and during travel.

Other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification and referring to the accompanying drawings, which form a material part of this disclosure.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts, which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described, and of which the scope will be indicated bythe appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing one side of a card of the instant puzzle.

*FIG. 1B is a perspective view showing the other side or obverse face of the card of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2A is a perspective view showing one side of another card of the present invention.

FIG. 2B is a perspective view showing the other side of the card of FIG. 2A.

FIG; 3A is a perspective view showing one side of another card of the present invention.

.FIG. 3B is a perspective view showing the other side or face of the card of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4A is a perspective view showing one side of face of still another card of the present invention.

FIG. 4B is a perspective view showing the other or obverse face of the card of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a pair of cards of the present invention in stacked relation.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating 3 of the cards of the present invention in a stacked relation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now more particularly to the drawings, a puzzle card is shown in FIGS. 1A and 18, being there generally designated 10, and having its opposite faces respectively designated 11a and 11b. Further, the puzzle card is of a polygonal external configuration, preferably that of an .equilateral polygon, such as a square, but may be of other external outline configuration.

The puzzle card lflmay be formed with at least one through opening, as at 12, which may assume the form of an enclosed or circumferentially bounded aperture, say of a triangular configuration, as illustrated. While the through opening 12 may be of other than the illustrated enclosed triangular configuration, it is preferably provided with at least one internal bounding edge, asat 13, which does not extend along an external bounding edge. Other, additional internal bounding edges of the through opening .12, as at 14 and 15, mayextend longitudinally along respective adjacent external bounding edges of the card 10. That is, in the illustrated embodiment, the through opening 12 may be of a right triangular configuration having its internal right angle in alignment with an adjacent right angular corner of the card 10.

On one face of the card 10, adjacent to the internal bounding edge 13 of opening 12, as along the bounding margin thereof not parallel to an external card edge, there may be provided'one or more partial characteristic markings, such as a blue semicircle 16a and a green semicircle 170, each located with its diameter coincident with the edge 13. Also, an additional characteristic marking 18a, such as a red circle, may be located on the card face 11a, spaced from the opening 12.

The obverse face 11b is similarly provided with partial characteristic markings 16b and 17b, say in the form of an orange semicircle and blue semicircle, respectively, each located with their diameter along the edge 13. An additional characteristic marking, say a red circle 18b may be provided on the card face 11b spaced from the opening 12.

In FIGS. 2A and 2B are shown opposite sides or faces of an additional puzzle card 20, which is similar in many respect to the puzzle card 10. For example, the puzzle card 20 of FIGS. 2A and 23 includes opposite sides or faces 21a and 21b, and is provided with a through opening 22. More specifically, the card 20 may be of a polygonal external configuration, say an equilateral configuration such as that of a square, and may advantageously be externally congruent to the card 10 of FIGS. 1A and 1B. In addition, the through opening 22 may be of an enclosed polygonal configuration, such as that of a right triangle, as illustrated, including an internal bounding edge 23 which does not extend parallel to or longitudinally along a card edge, and an additional pair of internal edges 24 and 25 disposed at right angles with respect to each other and each extending parallel to and longitudinally along a respective adjacent external edge of the card 20. Thus, it will now be understood, and appear in the drawings, that the card 20 is congruent to the card 10, both externally and internally, so that such cards may be economically manufactured as the same part.

However, the card 20 is provided on one face or surface 210 with partial characteristic markings, as at 26a and 27a, which may differ from the corresponding markings of the first described card. For example, the partial characteristic markings 26a and 27a of card 20 may, respectively, comprise an orange semicircle and a green semicircle, the semicircles having their diameter coincident with the edge 23 of opening 22. In addition, spaced from the opening 22, the card face 21a may be provided with a characteristic marking 280, such as a circular marking in blue.

On the obverse side or face 21b of the card 20, along the edge 23 of opening 22, there may be provided additional par tial characteristic markings, such as red and green semicircles, respectively designated 26b and 27b, which semicircles have their diameters coincident with edge 23. In addition, a characteristic marking 28b, say in the form of a blue circle, may be provided on the card face 21b spaced from the opening 22.

The instant puzzle may include additional cards, say the two cards shown in FIGS. 3A and 38, there being generally designated 30, and in FIGS. 4A and 48, there being designated 40. The cards 30 and 40 may be essentially identical to the cards 20 and 10, being congruent thereto, both externally and internally, and therefore congruent to each other. That is, the cards 30 and 40 may each be of a square or other polygonal external configuration congruent to the remaining cards, and be provided with through openings, as at 32 and 42,

which may be of triangular or otherpolygonal configuration congruent to the openings 12 and 22. More specifically, the card 30 is provided with opposite sides or faces 31a and 31b, the polygonal opening 32 being bounded by an internal edge 33 which does not extend parallel to oralong an external card edge, and a pair of additional internal edges 34 and 35 which do extend adjacentto and in parallelism longitudinally along respective external edgesof the card.

In addition, the card 30 is provided on its face 31a with a pair of partial characteristic markings 36a and 37a, which may each assume the form of a semicircle, being respectively green and red, and having their diameters coincident with the internal edge 33. Spaced from the opening 32, the card face 31a may be provided with a characteristic marking 38a, say in the form of an orange circle.

Similarly, the obverse face 31b of card 30 may be provided with partial characteristic markings 36b and 37b, say in the form of semicircles of, respectively, blue and red colors. The semicircle 36b and 37b have their diameters coincident with the internal edge 33, and an additional marking 38b, say an orange circle may be located on the face 31b adjacent to and spaced from the internal edge 33.

The card 40 is similar to the cards 10, 20 and 30, the internal opening 42 being bounded within an edge 43 which does not extend along an external card edge, and a pair of right angularly disposed edges 44 and 45 which do extend longitudinally along in adjacent spaced parallelism with respective external card edges. The card face or surface 41a is provided with a pair of partial characteristic markings 46a and 4711, which may assume the form of semicircles, being respectively blue and orange, and located each with its diameter coincident with the edge 43 of opening 42. Adjacent to and spaced from the internal edge 43, the face 41a may be provided with a characteristic marking 48a, say in the form of a green circle.

The obverse side 41b of the card 40 is provided with a pair of partial characteristic markings, say in the form of semicircles 46b and 47b, and respectively colored orange and red, each having its diameter coincident with the edge 43 of opening 42. In addition, a characteristic marking 48b, say in the form of a green circle, may be provided on the face 41b adjacent to and spaced from the edge 43.

The object of the puzzle is to arrange the cards in a face-toface or stacked relation with the partial markings of nether cards in adjacent complementary relation with the partial markings of superior cards. Toward this end, the cards may be inverted relative to each other, as desired, and may be rotated relative to each other, being congruent in their outline configuration in the stacked relation.

An intermediate step in solution of the puzzle is illustrated in FIG. 5, wherein card has been superposed on nether card 20, with faces 11a and 21a facing upwardly. The superior card 10 is disposed in the same angular orientation in FIG. 5 as it is in FIG. 1A, while the nether card 20 has been rotated ninety degrees counterclockwise from its illustrated position of FIG. 2A. In this condition, the blue characteristic circular marking 28a is in alignment with and beneath the semicircular blue characteristic marking 16a of card 10, and serves to complete the latter when viewed from above, as in FIG. 5. The partially completed condition of FIG. 5 illustrates characteristic marking 17a and characteristic marking 26a as partial,

semicircular and incomplete.

However, in the condition shown in FIG. 6, the card 40 has been placed beneath the card 20 of FIG. 5, with the card face 411: exposed upwardly. In this condition, the characteristic markings 46b and 48b of the card face 41b serves to respectively complement the previously incomplete markings 26b and 17a of FIG. 5, so that there are exposed a plurality of complete characteristic markings, as illustrated in FIG. 6.

It is an object of the present invention to employ all of the e cards in the general manner described above in connection with FIGS. 5 and 6, so that each face or end of the stack of cards presents a complete red spot, blue spot, green spot and orange spot. That is, an object of the puzzle is to arrange the cards in stacked relation so that no spot shows two different color halves, and that each spot is of a different color. Of course, other objectives may be employed, say to heighten or lessen the challenge, if desired.

, From the foregoing, it is seen that the present invention provides a card puzzle which is extremely simple in structure, capable of economic manufacture by mass production techniques and which otherwise fully accomplishes its intended objects.

Although the present invention has been described in some detail by way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity of understanding, it is understood that certain changes and modifications may be made within the spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A puzzle comprising a plurality of cards each having only a single through opening, said cards being configured for superposition in stacked relation with the opening of each card at least partially closed by the extension thereacross of certain of the remaining cards, and partial characteristic markings on said cards along the bounding margins of said through openings and extending to the edges of said openings, said cards being selectively oriented in said stacked relation with the partial marking of nether cards in adjacent complementary relation with the partial markings of superior cards, said openings each having at least one bounding margin which does not extend along an exterior bounding margin of the associated card, and said partial characteristic markings being along and extending to the edge of said one bounding margin.

2. A puzzle according to claim 1, at least one other bounding margin of each opening extending along the exterior bounding margin of the associated card, said other bounding margin having no partial characteristic marking therealong.

3. A puzzle according to claim 2, said partial characteristic markings being of halves of symmetrical figures for alignment with similar characteristic markings of other cards in said stacked relation.

4. A puzzle according to claim 3, said cards each having the outline configuration of an equilateral polygon, for selected angular rotation in said stacked relation.

t I? 1' i l 

1. A puzzle comprising a plurality of cards each having only a single through opening, said cards being configured for superposition in stacked relation with the opening of each card at least partially closed by the extension thereacross of certain of the remaining cards, and partial characteristic markings on said cards along the bounding margins of said through openings and extending to the edges of said openings, said cards being selectively oriented in said stacked relation with the partial marking of nether cards in adjacent complementary relation with the partial markings of superior cards, said openings each having at least one bounding margin which does not extend along an exterior bounding margin of the associated card, and said partial characteristic markings being along and extending to the edge of said one bounding margin.
 2. A puzzle according to claim 1, at least one other bounding margin of each opening extending along the exterior bounding margin of the associated card, said other bounding margin having no partial characteristic marking therealong.
 3. A puzzle according to claim 2, said partial characteristic markings being of halves of symmetrical figures for alignment with similar characteristic markings of other cards in said stacked relation.
 4. A puzzle according to claim 3, said cards each having the outline configuration of an equilateral polygon, for selected angular rotation in said stacked relation. 